The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi on Friday categorically said it allows only one attendant with one patient as a policy.

Coming as it does a day after Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi interacted with patients waiting for treatment along with their families outside the premier institute, the statement has ostensibly been issued by the premier health facility in response to one of the videos of his interaction with the patients.

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“A video showing the plight of patients awaiting treatment is being circulated on X, along with the interview of one attendant whose patient is admitted in AIIMS, Delhi. In this regard, it is submitted that the video is that of the subway outside AIIMS which is manned by the Delhi police and does not qualify whether all patients shown therein belong to AIIMS Delhi,” reads the statement substantiating the assumption.

Clarifying on its policy of one attendant for one patient, the AIIMS added that a provision has, however, been made for attendants of patients awaiting treatment in the Vishram Sadans subject to availability of beds.

There are in all four Vishram Sadans with a total capacity of 1,500 beds, of which 559 are available to the main campus. Besides, the institute said it has also taken the initiative to move patients awaiting registration to a temporary shelter called ‘Aashrey’.

If patients are found staying on the footpath outside the AIIMS, the institution said, they are transported in the night to the shelter where they are served food and provided bedding along with blankets and separate toilet facilities for males and females. “After the night stay, these patients are taken to the hospital in the morning and their priority in the registration is honoured. This has been a humanitarian gesture from the AIIMS since December 2024 adopted in view of extreme cold in the national capital. Only those patients who are willing to go to Aashrey are transported,” it said.

The AIIMS informed about a new mega Vishram Sadan with a capacity for 2,000 beds to be constructed at Ansari Nagar West.

Earlier, Congress shared a video of Gandhi’s Thursday night interaction on X reading: “Months of waiting for treatment, inconvenience and insensitivity of the government – this is the reality of Delhi AIIMS today. The situation is such that people coming from faraway places bearing the burden of their loved ones’ illness are forced to sleep on footpaths and subways in this cold winter.”

The Congress leader met the patients waiting for treatment and heard their problems, it said.